How It’s Made: Poison Ivy Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) Cosplay - Astra Studios
A.I. Art - What the Heck is That???
In case you missed out last writeup on the future of AI, here’s a refresher.
This image is a hybrid between traditional studio photography and machine generated artificial intelligence art (A.I. Art).
What that means is I told the machine I wanted a wondering fantasy path in the woods with a certain aesthetic and the machine drew me one.
The technology is incredible, but not without its own limitations.
Basically, it’s very fancy programming that can interpret your prompts and generate an image based off similar images. (I imagine the image tags and descriptions across the internet help to populate this)
Looking to learn more on how to composite the actual image in photoshop?
Check out our video on how we did that here!
This image used A.I,
This image I used artificial intelligence and a portrait of the amazing Abi Spiegel to create a gotham-esque scene. Makeup and hair was provided by the incredible Chie Sharp.
Base Images
We started with multiple images. The goal was to make conscious decisions and generate something that would fit the aesthetic of what I wanted to create. My goal for this composite was to place my subject Abi (model) into a overgrown Gotham inspired scene, fitting the Poison Ivy character we were cosplaying. This project took about 10-15 minutes to complete in photoshop. longer to generate the images.
into
Step 1: Generate the Source Image
Information Overload
This image might make it seem like I just quickly typed in what I was looking for and got a result, but in honesty I had to learn to speak the language of the machine. And even then, I still needed a few iterations and some photoshop. Let’s take a closer look at that machine language.
Basic Structure of Commands
Parameters options that change how the images generate.
A full /imagine command might contain several things, like an image URL, image weights, algorithm versions, and other switches. /imagine parameters should follow the above referenced order. We will get into the nitty gritty of how to maximize results using this formula in a later blog, for now let us cover the basics.
"Switches" in this context means controls passed to the bot using a "--" parameter. For instance, the command /imagine hi there --w 448 has a text prompt, and a parameter for the width, using the "--w" instruction.
Size
Width and Height
--w Width of image. Works better as multiple of 64 (or 128 for --hd)
--h Height of image. Works better as multiple of 64 (or 128 for --hd)
--w and --h values above 512 are unstable and may cause errors.
Aspect Ratio
--aspect or --ar
Sets a desired aspect ratio, instead of manually setting height and width with --h and --w.
Try --ar 9:16
for example, to get a 9:16 aspect ratio (~256x448).
Shortcuts
These "shortcuts" are commands that do the same as the forms following the ":" in the list below.
For example, if you were to type:
/imagine: promptvibrant california poppies--wallpaper
It would be the same as typing the longer form:
/imagine: promptvibrant california poppies--w 1920 --h 1024 --hd
Shortcut equivalences:
--wallpaper: --w 1920 --h 1024 --hd
--sl: --w 320 --h 256
--ml: --w 448 --h 320
--ll: --w 768 --h 512 --hd
--sp: --w 256 --h 320
--mp: --w 320 --h 448
--lp: --w 512 --h 768 --hd
Algorithm Modifiers
Version 1
--version 1 or --v 1 uses the original Midjourney algorithm (more abstract, sometimes better for macro or textures). --v 1 corresponds to the button in /settings.
Version 2
--version 2 or --v 2 uses the original Midjourney algorithm in use before July 25th, 2022. --v 2 corresponds to the button in /settings.
Version 3
--version 3 or --v 3 uses the current default Midjourney algorithm. --v 3 corresponds to the
button in /settings.
High Definition
--hd Uses a different algorithm that’s potentially better for larger images, but with less consistent compositions.
Prompt Modifiers
--No
--no Negative prompting (e.g., --no plants would try to remove plants). This is like giving it a weight of -0.5.
Detail Modifiers
-Stop
--stop Stop the generation at an earlier percentage. Must be between 10-100.
--Uplight
--uplight Use "lighter" upscaler for upscales. Light results are closer to the original image with less detail added during upscale. --uplight corresponds to the button in /settings.
Regular upscale (left) vs Light Upscale (right)
Quality
--quality <number> , or --q <number> Sets how much rendering quality time you want to spend. Default number is 1. Higher values take more time and cost more.
Specifying a quality of .5 will reduce your cost and image quality:
So now it’s time to put it all together in photoshop. I won’t go into compositing as that could be an entire blog in and of itself but I hope this gives you the knowledge you need to move forward with making the art you love to make.
Don’t get hung up on how, and live in the beauty of what is.
Til Next Time..
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